Spy trial: the sequel

An Egyptian who was once acquitted of spying for the Israeli intelligence agency, the Mossad, has again been brought before the court. Khaled Dawoud watched the proceedings
Sherif Filali is in the dock again. At the retrial of the 36-year-old businessman, who is accused of spying for Israel, State Security Prosecutor Mohamed Qandil sharply criticised an earlier ruling that found him innocent because he voluntarily turned double-agent, contacting the National Security Service (Egypt's intelligence agency) to inform them about his activities.
In an address to the court lasting two hours, Qandil insisted that Filali was "summoned for questioning by intelligence officers," and "did not go there voluntarily" as he claimed.
Filali, who used to live in Spain, has a different version of events in which he went to the Egyptian Embassy in Madrid and requested a meeting with the ambassador to inform him about "sensitive information."
That ambassador, Hussein Haridi, was summoned as a witness by the court on Tuesday. He told Judge Mohamed Shalabi that he had never met Filali personally, but he had read a memo containing information Filali wanted to convey to authorities back home. Haridi said he passed the memo to Cairo and did not take any further action.
But Haridi's involvement was more significant than that, according to the defence. The ambassador flatly denied a series of leading questions posed by Filali's lawyer, Ahmed Abdel-Khaliq, which implied that he knew his Filali well.
The lawyer claimed that "Filali received $5,000" from the Egyptian Embassy in Madrid as a reward for the information he provided, and that Haridi personally sent him a huge bouquet of flowers as a wedding present.
"This did not happen," was the answer which the ambassador gave to nearly all questions.
Filali arrived in Cairo from Spain on 10 September, 2000. Three days later, he went -- or was summoned -- to the National Security Service for questioning or de-briefing sessions, every day for two weeks, during which he was allowed to return home every day.
But on 27 September, police and state security prosecutors raided the Filali family home in Heliopolis and arrested him, as well as seizing two computers.
Qandil, meanwhile, stated that the information which Filali provided to the Egyptian Embassy in Spain "had nothing to do with the charges made against him." The prosecutor alleged that Filali used to work for the Israeli intelligence, the Mossad.
Qandil said that Filali had merely informed the Embassy that he was working with a former Russian intelligence officer who left the former Soviet Union following its collapse in 1991. The Russian, who was tried in absentia last year and sentenced to life imprisonment, was allegedly an arms dealer seeking to provide an advanced air- defence system worth $200 million to Iraq.
"This was the same information he originally provided to the intelligence officers, and he said nothing about his involvement with the Mossad," Qandil said.
He added that it was only after investigating Filali's claim that Egyptian intelligence officers became "convinced" that he was recruited by the Mossad to gather "sensitive information that could harm Egypt's national interests" and received money in return for his services.
According to the prosecutor, Filali was asked to "take photos of sensitive military sites, gather information on Egypt's arsenal of Russian weapons and how they would be upgraded, to collect information on secret arms deals between Egypt and Iraq, to convince two of his relatives to travel abroad to be recruited by the Mossad and to collect information on the soundness of the irrigation project at Toshka."
Qandil also read out extensive quotes from Filali's interrogation records in which he "openly confessed" that "he knew he worked for the intelligence service of a foreign country, but he was not sure whether it was Germany or Israel."
Filali, who was standing in the court cage handcuffed to a soldier and surrounded by other suspected criminals on trial, denied in statements to Al-Ahram Weekly that he worked for the Mossad. He claimed that "confessions" read out by the prosecutor were a result of "pressure after spending over two months in the basement of the intelligence headquarters."
He also claimed that "there isn't a single shred of evidence to prove that I worked for the Mossad. I only spoke about Iraq and how safe it was to get involved in such a deal."
Filali's lawyers opened his defence yesterday and will continue their presentations today.
According to the Emergency Law, which has been in effect in Egypt since 1981, sentences issued by state security courts cannot be appealed by the convicted. But if the prosecution disapproves of sentences handed down, they can seek a retrial. Filali was released after his first trial during summer last year. The prosecution appealed, however, and three months later he was arrested again for a new trial.
Recommend this page
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
Send a letter to the Editor